The 48 strong field in the women’s singles is missing one major name, the 2009 World Champion Lu Lan failed to reach the qualification within the Chinese rankings. With only the top four from any country eligible, Lu Lan was the 5th best ranked Chinese player, yet still the world number 9. Yanjiao Jiang is another casualty of the Chinese dominance in the event, being China’s number 6 and ranked 11 in the world.

Top seed Wang Yihan is given a bye in the first round before taking on the world #32 Porntip Buranaprasertuk of Thailand in the second round, her likely opponent is the 10th seeded Eriko Hirose. Hirose’s section starts with the 10th seed taking on Aditi Mutatkar of India, ranked 34th in the world. The winner of Hirose’s match will take on the winner of Maria Febe Kusumastuti of Indonesia, ranked 32nd in the world and Russia’s Tatjana Bibik, the world number 47.

Another Chinese player tops the seeding in the second section; Wang Lin of China is the 7th seed and receives a first round bye before taking on Slovenia’s world number 48, Maja Tvrdy. 12th seeded Yip Pui Yin is the other seed in the section and takes on local favourite and world number 106 Perrine Lebuhanic. The final match in the section and likely to play Yip Pui Yin in the second round is between Ireland’s Chloe Magee, ranked 69th in the world and Anna Rice of Canada, world number 42.

Tine Baun (formerly Rasmussen) is the 4th seed in the draw and the best chance for European success, after a first round bye she takes on Belgium’s world number, Lianne Tan who has failed to live up to her credentials as a junior to date. The second all-European match in the section is between Petya Nedelcheva, the 15th seed and Judith Meulendijks, the world number 23. This is one of the feature matches of the opening round. The winner of the previous match takes on the winner of Karen Foo Kune, the world number 102 and Larisa Griga, Ukraine’s world number 38.

Juliane Schenk offers European another possibility, the 8th seed has a first round bye before taking on Lydia Li Ya Cheah of Malaysia, the world number 78. The other seed in the section is the 14th seeded Bae Sueng Hee of Korea who plays Scotland’s world number 27 Susan Egelstaff in another extremely competitive opening round match. Last weeks winner Cheng Shao Chieh plays Any Nieminen of Finland with the winner taking on the winner of the Bae/Egelstaff match.

Hi Kim Moon is seeded 16 for the event and starts with a match against Portgual’s Telma Santos, the world number 88. The other opening round match in the section is between Michelle Chan Ky of New Zealand and Adrianti Firdasari of Indonesia, the world number 21 and the second highest ranked player not to be seeded. The highest seed in the section is France’s own Pi Hongyan who takes on Elena Prus of Ukraine, after a first round bye.

The 9th seeded Zhou Mi is the out of form seed in the competition, without a win in over a year and notorious for early upsets in the bigger events. Bulgaria’s Linda Zechiri, the world number 30 takes on Zhou Mi in round 1. Ai Goto has been in excellent form in recent months, the world number 22 takes on Alesia Zaitsava of Belarus, ranked 93rd in the world. The 3rd seeded Wang Xin is the highest seed in the section and after a opening round bye, takes on Canada’s Charmaine Reid, the world number 50.

The fourth of the Chinese seeds, Wang Shixian is the top seed from the seventh section of the draw but faces a tough opening match in the second round against world number 25, Thailand’s Salajkit Ponsana in another of the top matches in the opening round. Czech Kristina Ludikova, ranked 57th in the world takes on America’s Rena Wang, world number 80 for an opportunity to play the winner of the other match in the section, between Singapore’s Xing Aiying, world number 43 takes on the 11th seeded Yao Jie of Holland.

Similar to the men’s draw, Wong Mew Choo is ranked higher than one of the seeds in the event but the Malaysian missed out on a seeding. Hi Kim Moon is 20th in the world and the Wong is ranked 19th. Her campaign starts against the world number 51, Karin Schnaase of Germany for an opportunity to take on the seeded player in the second round. Ella Diehl is the seed from the top half of the section, with the 13th seed takes on another European tour veteran, Jeanine Cicognini, the world number 37 from Switzerland. The 2nd seeded Saina Newhal should put all the controversy over seeds to rest as she is the likely finalist from this half of the draw, she begins her week in round 2 with a match over Chen Hsiao Huan, the world number 65.

The 2009 World Championships runners-up are looking to go one better than last year, Lee Yong Dae missed most of the last 4 months with injury but Lee and Jung are the form partnership going into this months World Championships after a convincing 21-10, 21-16 victory over fellow Korean’s Cho and Kwon, the 6th seeds. The Korean success story continued in the women’s doubles, as Lee Hyo Jung put her injury scare in Macau behind her as she took the title with partner Kim Min Jung, defeating another unseeded Korean pair of Lee and Yoo, winning 21-14, 22-20.

Top seeds Hendra Gunawan and Vita Marissa claimed the mixed doubles title in an all-Indonesian final, taking the title in three tight games against the 5th seeded Ahmad and Natsir and claiming revenge for their two game loss to Ahmad and Natsir in Macau just last week, winning 22-20, 14-21, 22-20. Title number two for Indonesia came in the men’s singles with 3rd seeded Simon Santoso defeating the unseeded Korean Shon Wan Ho in a impressive two game victory to boost his confidence ahead of the World Championships in Paris later this month.

The local support had their own reasons to celebrate as Cheng Shao Chieh took the women’s singles title, defeating 3rd seeded Bae Sueng Hee of Korea. Cheng defeated the 8th, 4th and 3rd seed to take the title after a 78 minute marathon, winning 21-11, 24-26, 21-17.

Lee Chong Wei and Boonsak Ponsana began the play in the men’s singles events on the TV Court on Day 3 with a play for the semi finals up for grabs. However, the match was dominated by the top seed as he comfortable beat the 8th seeded Thai player 21-14, 21-10 to set up a semi final clash against the other quarter final in progress. That quarterfinal was between Chen Jin and Tien Minh Nguyen, but again the higher seeded player dominated the match, with Chen Jin coming up on top 21-7, 21-19 to set up a semi final match with Lee Chong Wei.

The lower half of the draw only saw one match being played, as Bao Chunlai pulled out of his match against 7th seeded Chen Long allowing a free pass into the semi final to face the winner of Peter Gade and Park Sung Hwan. The crowd were treated to a 79-minute match of high quality, with the 2nd seeded Gade pulling out the win 17-21, 21-16, 22-20 in the longest match of the day by almost 30 minutes.

Semi Finals:

Lee Chong Wei (1) v Chen Jin (3)

Chen Long (7) v Peter Gade (2)

Women’s Singles

The opening two matches on court in the women’s singles had some local interest with the potential of an unlikely all-Korean semi final. Sung Ji Hyun, who defeated Tine Rasmussen yesterday, took out another seed today. This time it was 7th seed Yao Jie with almost the same score as yesterday, 21-17, 21-16. Could Bae Seung Hee make it an all-Korean final?

The chances looked good, as the Korean took the opening game against Yip Pui Yin, who defeated the 4th seeded Juliane Schenk. Bae Sueng Hee completed the job in the second game, winning it 21-10 to see up an all-Korean match tomorrow.

The bottom half of the draw had another Korean player in the draw, with Hi Kim Moon on court against Chan Tsz Ka in the 3rd quarter final. In one of the quickest games of the day, Hi Kim Moon booked her place in the semi final with a 21-13, 21-10 win. The fourth quarter final was an all-seeded affair, with Zhou Mi, seeded 2 playing Wang Shixian, seeded 6.

The Chinese 6th seed took the opening game 21-18 and was 14-9 up in the second game before the second seed retired through injury.

Semi Finals:

Sung Ji Hyun v Bae Sueng Hee

Hi Kim Moon v Wang Shixian (6)

Other Matches:

Only 3rd seeded He and Yu remain in the mixed doubles of the 8 seeds that started the event, the 4th, 6th and 7th seeds all falling to unseeded couples in two games. Tao and Zhang, the couple that defeated Lee and Lee took out world champions Laybourn and Rytter Juhl 21-12, 21-15 to book their place in the last 4.

The women’s doubles has lost all of it’s seeds apart from the top 2, with the 3rd and 6th seeds going out today. Lee and Ha, unseeded Korean pair defeated Lee and Choi 21-9, 21-3 to set up a match against top seeded Chinese pair of Cheng and Zhao. Another Korean pair, Jung and Yoo will play the second seeded Japanese pairing of Pujii and Kakiiwa.

Two seeds remain in the men’s doubles also, with Lee and Jung seeded 1 beating Kim and Shin 21-14, 22-20 to book their place in the last 4 against Chai and Zhang of China. The other half of the draw sees unseeded Japanese pair of Endo and Hirobe, won defeated 3rd seeded Chandra and Gunawan 21-14, 21-7 in just 18 minutes play Cai and Fu of China. The 5th seeds beating the Danish 2nd seeded Boe and Mogensen 21-16, 15-21, 21-18 to book their place in the semi final.